The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties") is the current decade that began on 1 January 2020 and will end on 31 December 2029.

During the early part of this decade, the world population grew from 7.7 billion to over 8.2 billion people. In 2023, India overtook China to become the most populous country in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath marked the early 2020s. The first reports of the virus were published on 31 December 2019, though the first cases are said to have appeared nearly a month earlier. The pandemic led to a global economic recession, sustained rise in global inflation, and supply chain crisis. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global state of emergency. With multiple extreme weather events and ecological crises continuing to escalate, several world leaders have called the 2020s the "decisive decade" for climate action. The years 2023 and 2024 both broke yearly global temperature records, with 2024 breaching 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Politically, the 2020s marked a period of democratic backsliding in countries such as the United States, India, and Israel, while previously authoritarian nations such as Russia or China witnessed a further slide into totalitarianism. The decade is also marked by the rise of right-wing populist and anti-democratic movements across the world, such as Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, which formed the first far-right government in Italy since the fall of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship, Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza in Argentina, which elected the first libertarian head of state in the world, or Alternative for Germany, which became the leading opposition party in Germany after the 2025 German federal election. The 2020s also saw a decline of establishment politics as centrist parties, such as the Democratic Party's defeat in the 2024 United States elections, or Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance losing to the left-wing New Popular Front and the far-right National Rally in the 2024 French legislative election.

Anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred, such as the Gen Z protests including the "Asian Spring" in Asian countries, predominantly led by the eponymous Generation Z, in response to inequality, declining standards of living, corruption, democratic backsliding and authoritarianism. Social media has been a common tool for activism and coordination. Protests against responses to COVID-19, against racism and police brutality by the Black Lives Matter movement, and against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption, and authoritarianism occurred; along with citizen riots throughout the United States and Brazil attempting to overturn election results, seen by supporters as stolen, taking place. Among democracies in 2024, its elections saw 80% of incumbent parties lose support worldwide, as with the 2024 United States presidential election. In 2025, Trump triggered a global trade war, marking a new era of economic nationalism. (Full article...)